


dragged

by MementoMoriPontifexMortis



Series: Unofficial Whumptober 2k19 [6]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst, Historical References, M/M, Pre-Soviet Union
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27645895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MementoMoriPontifexMortis/pseuds/MementoMoriPontifexMortis
Summary: [Pre-Soviet Era/WWII Era] The harsh sound of the tea kettle whistling filled the air as Estonia felt the world – his world – end.
Relationships: Denmark/Estonia (Hetalia)
Series: Unofficial Whumptober 2k19 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1509662
Kudos: 1





	dragged

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: We had a post soviet fic last time, now this is a pre/right before soviet fic and it’s just angst. there truly is no real fluff or anything involved here. a lot of research has gone into this, though i do not doubt i got some things wrong. there’s only so much research you can do before you say fuck it and walk away. anyway. i do hope that everyone likes this piece, i am really not sold on it. i do like it but like i feel like it could be better but i’ve spent so long on it i gotta set it free.  
> until next time, which will be more angst by the way.

The harsh sound of the tea kettle whistling filled the air as Estonia felt the world – his world – end. It couldn’t be happening.

_Not again._

A soft whimper went unheard of as another one of Russia’s soldiers ransacked the house he had built up with the others. Somewhere in the house, he could hear Denmark yelling, screaming, _fighting_ with whoever he could get to pay attention to him.

The part of him that wasn’t frightened like a deer in sight lines wanted to join him – he was a free nation; his people had fought, and bled, and died for it – but he couldn’t force himself to do anything but stare in the distance. He had knew this was going to happen, hard not to have when Russia and his bosses had made Estonia’s bosses sign that pact agreeing (acquiescing) to let the Soviets build military bases in their country*, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t killing him to not know what to do. How could he fight when he had all but given them the keys?

A shout; Russian words filled the air, louder than the kettle that had already boiled over, louder than his own heartbeat that sounded in his ears, louder than Taani – somewhere in the distance a car drove up, it’s doors clanging shut.

“I don’t want to go.”

_Kurat.*_

Latvia.

How did he manage to forget about the shorter nation?

A loud crash sounded from somewhere and Estonia flinched at it. Well, he could hardly be blamed for too long, either they were going to be taken by the Soviet forces or everything was going to go away, which meant that Latvia needed not to be told that Estonia had forgotten about him.

“Estonia.” Latvia pulled on his sleeve, “I don’t-”

“ _Shush,_ ” Estonia hissed, pushing the younger nation behind him and away from the barrage of soldiers. As much as he wished he could have Latvia run out the backdoor, the soldiers had already taken note of him.

Plus, he doubted the Latvian would get far – his legs never seemed to work whenever he was scared; the boy often stood there shaking and worrying himself into a panic. Normally, Lithuania -

_Oh no,_ Eduard thought, _did they already grab Lithuania?_ The other nation was Russia’s favorite to torment. No, doubtful. They couldn’t have. Taurys would’ve found some way to get a message to them. Oh, now Eduard was cursing himself, he should’ve insisted on having Lithuania over this weekend. Instead he had accepted that the Lithuania wanted to have some alone time after everything.

_What would having him over had helped? He’d only get dragged away first,_ an insidious part of his brain thought as he saw a solider tear something off the wall.

His lip met his teeth, a habit long since discarded. He had no idea what to do, what to say – _how to get them to leave_ – he was stuck, standing in place. Part of him wanted to run, to try and escape into his woods, another part just wanted to shut the kettle off, accept what was to happen, try to make his peace with it; they both seemed to war, a fight that would only end when he was dragged away from his little abode.

Did he have enough time to say goodbye to Nikolaj? Did he have enough time to pack a bag? Would he be allowed to pack a bag? Last time he went to live with Russia, he was, though that was a long time ago, both him and Russia had changed.

A scream bubbled into his throat but he swallowed it. He hated living with Russia and he didn’t want to go back to doing so.

Taani let loose an impressive amount of Estonian swears, words that brought a small brush of red to Eduard’s cheeks – he wasn’t much of a prude, often swearing himself, but wow did Taani _really_ know swear words.

“I’m so sorry,” he muttered to Latvia, his voice soft and broken. “I -”

The Latvian squeezed the bottom of Eduard’s shirt, pulling the fabric taut. How could this happen to them? Were they not allowed to know the joy of nationhood like the others without this constant snatching of freedom? A silent prayer sent to the sky, no real hope placed behind it – religion had never been his thing* and he doubted that the Christian God would help a non-believer such as himself, but it made him feel like he had finally exhausted all his options.

“Taani,” he called, wanting to have his final words with the other before all else fell apart. “Nikolaj!”

The other nation cut himself off, hearing him from wherever the other was in the house. “Eduard?” Footsteps lighter than that of the heavy soldiers, Latvia gripped him tighter. Bright blue eyes appeared in front of them, relief and worry mingling together in some way indescribable. “I’m not going to let them-”

“The garden will need tending to,” Eduard said, cutting him off. “I don’t know if you’ll be allowed to come here and do so, but if you can, please – if not, I’m sure you can hire someone.”

As if his people wouldn’t understandably flee from their annexed country. There’d be people too stubborn to leave and he was betting on them for it. Hopefully this wouldn’t be too long of a – whatever this was going to be. Russia couldn’t keep them for too long without others stepping in, right?

Of course they’ll step in, he told himself. “And my stuff, please take some of it with you.” While a good majority of the stuff he held onto that held true sentimental value was at Finland’s place – the other nation had been holding onto all that stuff since Estonia was first taken by Russia while Estonia had been living with Sweden – there was still a few things in this house that had become truly important to him.

“Eduard, he can’t do this, I won’t let him,” Taani insisted, grabbing his hand, “I won’t let him take you or Raivis.”

“You are going to stand in my way?”

A chill entered the room, the sound of the soldiers ruining everything had gone quiet some time during his words with Denmark, and the man behind them – not a man, their fellow nation behind them, seemed to command the entire room to his liking.

“I was not expecting you here, Дания*,” The Russian continued, “I thought you were going to be busy this week meeting with Norway.”

Eduard watched as Nikolaj’s face screwed up in confusion. That had been a private conversation that they had had over telephone when Eduard had last been at work. Unnerving what that meant in Estonia’s point of view.

“This isn’t right,” he caught himself saying, cutting off whatever Denmark was going to say. “We don’t want to go.”

Russia’s face tightened, his eyes darkening. “We do not always get what we want, Да?”

Rhetorical question and yet there was nothing Eduard wanted more to do than point out that out of the four nations there, him and Latvia had had the shortest end of the stick thanks to him. He was going to hold that back – his brain literally was screaming to make this transition as painless as possible, as easy as he could – but he couldn’t. He was tired of this, tired of losing his freedom to other nations.

“You’re right, we don’t – if I did, you wouldn’t be allowed to step foot in my country.” His heart felt like it might throw itself out of his chest, but he stood by what he said.

“How harsh,” Russia said simply, his smile growing. “It is thankful that you do not get what you want then, isn’t it for me?”

“I’m not leaving,” Eduard said, ignoring the way Raivis trembled behind him and the look on Nikolaj’s face; ignoring the feeling of dread in his stomach. “You can’t make me.”

“You are already a part of the Soviet Union,” Russia said, ignoring his shake of the head. “I talked with your bosses and they have agreed, it is best if you come live with me – both of you.”

That wasn’t his government, not his real one*. Just a fake one set up by Russia and his bosses. “I-”

“You have no choice.”

Raivis screamed from behind him, a cry that brought Estonia’s blood to a stop. He turned, seeing a soldier – for the first time this close to them – grabbing his brother nation by the arm, pulling him towards the back door.

“Let go of him.” Eduard moved forwards, letting go of Taani. “Stop, you’re hurting him.”

Russia appeared next to him, yanking him. “Get off me!” He shouted, eyes wild as he looked back towards his Taani, “You can’t!”

Raivis cried louder, the sound of him being dragged followed by the sound of things dropping – it was obvious that the Latvian was refusing to go quietly, instead trying his hardest to grab onto something that could stop them from being able to pull him out of the house.

“Come along now,” Russia said, a sickly sweet smile on his face. “It’s best for us all.”

This wasn’t the best for anyone, Estonia thought, shaking his head. “No,” he said, trying to yank his arm away from the taller nation, “Let go off me.”

Russia ignored him though, instead dragging him through the house towards the front door. His struggles were nothing to the stronger nation, the cries of Latvia had become muffled by distance – where that soldier was taking the other nation, Estonia had no clue – and Taani could just barely be seen pushing himself through the fray of Russian soldiers in hopes of getting close enough to put a stop to everything.

There were cars in front of his place, soldiers lining the space between. It was obvious they had expected a bit of resistance. Ivan stopped them in front of a car. There were two soldiers waiting outside it, a man in the front as undisturbed as if none of this was even happening.

Eduard looked back towards his home. He had words to say, things to speak into existence, but all he could do was to look longingly at Taani, who stood on his front stoop.

“Come, come, it’s time to pick up Lithuania and some of the others,” Russia said, giving him another wide smile. “We are going to be a family.”

A roaring sound filled the air, a sickening smell of smoke hit his throat. What…? No. No, not his – the soldiers that had been rummaging through his house had filed out quickly, lighting the place as they did so. “My home,” Estonia whispered, no.

“Oh my.” Taani had noticed the fire, rushing inwards. Ivan spoke again. “They were not supposed to do that.” 

“What, destroy everything?”

Ivan shook his head, “In the car, now.” He pushed. The soldiers opened the door and forced him inside, one on each side so he had nowhere to escape to. Ivan stood outside it for a moment longer before he closed the door and turned away. From the corner of Estonia’s eye he could see the fires eat away at what he had built and for him, it was the most unfortunate metaphor for what was going on.

His world was, yet again, ending – though this time, it seemed more damaging; more unending; more painful. Closing his eyes as the car started, ignoring the two men on either of his side, he promised himself, he would not accept this. He would never accept this again.

He was the Republic of Estonia, he was not going to give up and allow all that he had fought for to be stolen from him.

**Author's Note:**

> Some info:  
> *On September 24th 1939, the Estonian Foreign Minister was expecting to sign some trade agreement with the Soviets but instead was given an very shitty ultimatum. They were forced to make some concessions - lessened their troop numbers from 35000 to 25000 (how gracious, right /s) - but on September 28th, four days later, a Soviet-Estonian treaty was agreed to and became the basis for the Soviet-Latvian, Soviet-Lithuanian treaties later signed in October.  
> *Kurat is an Estonian swear word, I think it means like ‘devil’ or something but (and take this with a grain of salt here, please, I got this info from the Estonian Reddit) is kinda like fuck as well. Personally it just sounds nice so.. *shrugs*  
> * Дания, is Russian for Denmark.  
> * Да is Russian for ‘yes’.  
> *The last line is a reference to the fact that the Estonians, even in the face of this horrific bullshittery, stayed strong. Like honestly, they survived the Soviets, the Nazis, the Soviets again, and they’ve come out a pretty cool country. Obviously there are still the scars left behind by this shit, but like, they never gave up, not completely. They spoke their language when it become illegal, despite all that could’ve happened, they kept their flag, knowing that it was illegal. They snuck music in, they snuck people out, they scream into the void that is the world stage and demanded their freedom. Then they made the whole world notice them - and their fellow annexed Baltic states - by making the longest chain of humans, holding hands. I just - like come on, you gotta give it to them.  
> anyway, fuck the soviet union it sucked ass and the more i learn about it the more i feel bad for everyone who suffered under it- which was, as far as i can tell, literally everyone not in the soviet government.


End file.
